April is Stress Awareness Month

By Anna Maletta

You might wonder “Why is April ‘Stress Awareness Month?” Taxes, spring fever, spring-cleaning, body image concerns (summer’s coming), school is out on break, time to plant the garden, fertilize the lawn and the list goes on.

It’s time to take a deep breath and calmly start getting your plan together. Parents, singles and kids alike, start to feel an awakening from the winter doldrums that often cause depression and anxiety. As a health nut, I use nutritional supplements, it keeps the jitters and blues away. Anyone who knows me is aware of my admiration for the humble yet mighty macro-mineral, magnesium.

Many children and adults do not get enough magnesium in their diets. Humans cannot function without the proper amounts of this mineral in our bloodstream. Our soils were once rich in magnesium but not any longer. This affects the nutritional quality of the foods we eat so we must supplement our diet with this crucial nutrient.

Here’s some symptoms that may indicate a magnesium deficiency, and they are: muscle spasms & cramps, fatigue, arrhythmia, dizziness, numbness in your extremities, nausea, insomnia, anxiety, panic attacks and high blood pressure! These are pretty serious conditions that even lead to debilitating health issues.

There are many forms of magnesium to choose from, as this macro mineral needs to be bound to an amino acid before it can be digested & utilized in the human body. I personally do best with magnesium bi-glycinate in a veggie capsule by Bluebonnet though it’s more expensive than the tableted version by Doctor’s Best.

Some forms will help lower blood pressure & others can help move the bowels. But don’t fret over which is right for you, just start taking it regularly. Magnesium helps with sleep, calms nerves & stress, is absolutely vital for heart health (our hardest-working organ), muscle relaxation and much more. This link charts the enhanced properties and potential of magnesium when bound to the different types of amino acids http://products.mercola.com/magnesium-supplement/

I had the pleasure years ago to attend a talk by the founder of Natural Calm, Peter Gillham, at a training session in Seattle about the miraculous power of magnesium. We were selling his product hand over fist at our stores and he explained why it was such a popular nutrient. His formulation is one particular type of magnesium in the form of magnesium citrate. It’s a great way to stay regular and can have a noticeable laxative effect.

He’s very passionate about the importance of human health and he realized we need to revitalize our depleted soil with more magnesium. His company “devotes a percentage of their profits to our Natural Revitalization environmental action initiative, now in its fourth year.

As part of this, we support both financially and actively, a number of non-profit groups covering areas of food safety, animal welfare, soil regeneration and carbon sequestration …”

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